[indiejade]

Also, going to the country's largest landfill showed me a lot about how much waste we create in our search for the next thing. We throw away a lot of stuff that works perfectly fine simply to get the bigger and better model.

The landfill problem is interesting in context (as the interviewee mentions Wal-Mart). First of all is the combination of Wal-Mart + rural America + lack of recycling education (in rural America). Wal-Mart got big by basically exploiting small town USA's country bumpkin mentality.

Second of all: Rural America does not recycle. . . it's actually kind of infuriating. Case in point: after I moved to Utah from Florida, I spearheaded a paper recycling program at my high school. Most of my elementary and middle-school years I'd been drilled with the very liberal environmental studies education, so I was pretty astonished that people in the country didn't recycle anything. . . one garbage bin by the curbs, and all of the trash into a landfill. Shortly thereafter the local Wal-Mart moved to the end of town and opened up as a brand new "Super Wal-Mart". The trash cans stopped being big enough, so the city bought people newer and bigger ones.

What it ultimately boils down to is Corporate Social Responsibility. Wal-Marts could do more to address the issue by offering recycling facilites and education. But for the most part things that get purchased in bulk / supersized containers from the Wal-Marts and Sams Clubs across middle America will never get recycled.

[allenp]

You are on the right track but I think slightly misguided. The responsibility does not rest on the corporate shoulders but on the shoulders of government. If the people value reduced/recyclable packaging they can pass laws to mandate it in a variety of ways. Look at the outlawing of plastic shopping bags in San Francisco and other locales.